Telemedicine

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  • EXPLAIN the key IT terms related to your topic
    • Telemedicine or telehealth is using IT to perform medical consultations when the doctor and patient are in geographically separate locations.
    • Telesurgery is using IT to perform surgery on a patient in a geographically separate location from the doctor.
    • Store-and-forward telemedicine is telemedicine using techniques such as email, which do not operate in real time.
  • DESCRIBE any IT processes that are related to your topic.
There are many IT processes that are used in telemedicine. In terms of consultations and video data being sent to a monitor and received there are many things that impact how the video data got sent. To protect the privacy of the client the hospital uses an encryption software when sending the data via the internet. Monitors, cameras, and microphones are set on both sides (sending & receiving) that allow video and audio to be captured and shown. The data is sent through a server that the hospital uses which allows the data to be safer than just sending it via the internet without any protection.
  • EVALUATE the Strand 1 issues and impacts. (All claims must be supported by evidence and real life examples)
Telemedicine has many issues and impacts. As for reliability, the technology is reliable as many experts have worked on it, but since the technology is new, there may be bugs in the programming that have not been found yet and are potentially dangerous. As for security, the technology must be strongly protected against outside invaders and hackers; otherwise, enemies of the patient could hack into the technology and harm the patient instead of the doctors curing him. This technology would not be equally accessible to everyone since it is very expensive and not everyone can afford that level of healthcare. Also, policies would have to enacted ensuring that all of the above issues are dealt with.
  • DESCRIBE multiple, specific real life examples that relate to your topic.
Zeus is the pinnacle of telemedicine. It is, simply, a surgical table that a patient sits on with blades, scissors, and clamps connected to robotic arms. Halfway around the world is your operating doctor who sits on a massive, game like chair, and then operates Zeus to perform a surgery on you. This happened in America (the patient’s location) and France (the doctor’s location). A doctor had to perform a time-sensitive surgery on a patient from halfway across the world, and it ended in the patient’s full recovery and was the first successfully performed telesurgery.
  • COMPARE how your topic relates to the 2010 HL Paper 3 Oobunta Case Study. Give an account of the similarities between the two, referring to both of them throughout. Ensure that you make direct reference to the case study booklet using line numbers appropriately.
In the Oobunta Case study, one of the main problems was that the villages and even the hospital did not have good technology or staff to tend to the patients. Thus, the case study says on line 47 that village B is run by only one health worker, and on line 52 that village C uses handwritten cards in order to record information. If a voluntary organization were to donate technology to the Oobunta hospital and its villages, then the technology problem would be solved. Also, with the advent of telemedicine, the staffing problem would be solved to a certain extent, as doctors, surgeons, and workers outside of Oobunta could treat patients in Oobunta via this new technology. However, the villages and the hospital would still require staff to maintain and work these technologies.
Telemedicine video playlist: __https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5E4F65371E312389__